Most interestingly, she discovered that shortly after the Ricker debacle, Bayliss had found himself under review, and had earned another sanction, for his attempt to discredit the sergeant in charge of the evidence area.
He’d gone so far as to harass the man’s wife and children, to haul the sergeant into an IAB interview room and keep him there, without benefit of counsel or representation, for over four hours.
The IRS had received an anonymous tip, and though it hadn’t been traced to Bayliss or his crew, it had resulted in a full audit of the sergeant’s financials. Nothing suspicious had been found, but the audit had cost the unlucky cop thousands of dollars in legal fees and lost time.
She would have to take a much closer look at Bayliss, and now at the beleaguered Sergeant Matt Myers.
She wanted to go deeper but lacked the tech skill. She glanced over at Roarke, but she knew from his intent and focused expression that he wouldn’t welcome the interruption.
Rather than humiliate herself with failure by attempting to access Bayliss’s personal files, she tried another route.
She contacted Webster.
“Bayliss,” she said without preamble. “Talk to me.”
“A fanatic disguised as a crusader. A disguise I bought, I’m sorry to say, for a considerable amount of time. Dedicated to his particular mission. Charismatic along with it, like some prophet preaching a new religion.”
She sat back, hummed. “Really?”
“Yeah, gets you hyped, which is what can pull you along before you realize you’ve just stepped knee-deep in a pile of shit. On the other hand, he’s exposed corruption and moved a lot of dirty cops out of the system.”
“By any means necessary.”
“Okay.” Webster sighed, rubbed the back of his neck. “That’s true, particularly over the last year. His methods have been making me uneasy. I’m pretty sure he has files, extensive ones, on every cop in the department. Not that he shares them with me. He crosses over the line, privacy and procedure wise. I used to think it was justified.”
“What changed your mind?”
“Sergeant Myers. He was officer of record on the Ricker evidence that mysteriously vanished or became corrupted. Jesus, Bayliss hounded him to death. He was convinced Myers was in Ricker’s pocket, though there was no evidence, overt or covert, to substantiate it. My take is he figured he’d get Myers off the job one way or the other, but the guy stood up. He just wouldn’t break, he wouldn’t shake. When the department cleared him, he transferred to a house in Queens. Bayliss never forgot it, and he’s been burning low over the slap on the wrist he took from The Tower.”
“Tibble rapped him.”
“That’s the word. Right after the rap, he started the operation with Kohli. Maybe he figured he’d vindicate himself and end up with a shine. I don’t know, Dallas, he’s a hard one to figure.”
“Do you know if this Myers is still alive and well in Queens?”
“I never heard otherwise.” Webster’s eyes widened. “Christ, Dallas, you don’t think Bayliss is out there killing cops?”
“It would get them off the job, wouldn’t it?” she countered. “One way or the other. You said you wanted in, Webster. Did you mean it?”
“Yeah. Yeah, I meant it.”
“Then here’s your first assignment. Check out Myers, make sure he hasn’t met with any recent accidents. And if he’s still breathing, see if you can find out if he’s been visiting our fair city.”
He hadn’t worked Homicide for years, but he picked up fast. Nodded. “He’d have plenty of reason to resent dirty cops. What angle are you working?”
“I’ve got plenty of them. Right now, I’m going to get a warrant for Bayliss’s personal files.”
“I’ll believe that when I see it,” he muttered.
“When I do,” she continued coolly, “I want your help sorting through them. I’ll be in touch.”
She cut transmission, then turned to see Roarke watching her. “Are you looking at Bayliss for this?”
“There’s dirty and there’s dirty. He’s got grime under his manicure. How much distance is there between deliberately ruining lives and taking them?
” She shrugged. “Webster can keep busy getting me some data on Myers, and we’ll see where that goes. I can’t say Bayliss is my first choice. I don’t think he’s got the stomach for blood—and we’ve still got Kohli being clean. But one way or the other, he’s a connection.”
“It’s a simple matter to access his personal files.”